Marc Chagall: 41 years since his passing

On March 28, Marc Chagall died.

Marc Chagall – one of the most famous early modernist painters and one of the best-known Jewish artists in the world. The French, Americans, Jews, Belarusians, and Lithuanians all consider him their own.

His links with Lithuania include the artists Yehuda Pen and Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, the diplomat Jurgis Baltrušaitis, his painted (and only surviving colour) depiction of the interior of the Great Synagogue of Vilnius, his participation in the YIVO anniversary in Vilnius, and an exhibition in Kaunas.

Marc Chagall, whose real name was Moishe Shagalov, was born on 6 (or possibly 7) July 1887 near Vitebsk (then Russian Empire, today Belarus) into a Litvak Hasidic family.

There were no artworks in his childhood home. He first encountered drawing at the age of about thirteen or fifteen, when he saw a classmate sketching. This moment became a turning point in his life as a future artist. After being advised (somewhat bluntly) to go to the library, pick a book, and copy the drawings he found there, he began learning to draw.

Chagall was accepted to study art in Vitebsk for free under Yehuda Pen, who came from Ezherene (now Zarasai in Lithuania). But he did not particularly like the academic style of portrait drawing. He left the studio after a few months, but carried with him one essential lesson – to depict Jewish life in his work.

I remember a story from Rachel Margolis about Chagall’s relationship with his wife and muse, Bella. She recounted her meeting with the artist in Vilnius. I read this story in the book “Vilnius: In Search of Traces of the Jerusalem of Lithuania” (Vilnius, 2016) by Irina Guzenberg and Genrich Agranovsky.

Marc Chagall visited her father, the well-known physician Samuel Margolis, at his home. For the girl, meeting the French artist left a strong impression; she had seen his paintings in a book of reproductions. They spent the evening talking about the views outside the window, the house, and dinner.

Rachel could not resist asking how the painter could depict animals if there were no goats or cows in Paris, and why people fly in his paintings when that does not happen in real life. Her parents felt slightly embarrassed by the question, but Chagall did not treat it as foolish. “My wife always poses for me,” he answered seriously. “I look at her and imagine everything I need – even a cow or a rooster. Bella is my best friend and assistant.”

Marc Chagall died on 28 March 1985, aged 97.